[Lordaeron] Your Guide to 70 PvP

Hi there, and welcome to Zal's guide to PvP as a 70 Rogue. I'm going to be covering a number of talent specs and their pros and cons that work in a 70 PvP Environment.

1.
9/0/52-Puncturing Wounds Shadow Dance
http://wotlk.openwow.com/talent#fhhcZZebfbhGzdVzVcRt
Pros:

• Highest damage of Shadow Dance specs
• High Backstab crit chance means more combo point generation

Cons:

• No Improved Gouge (HUGE loss)
• Talents are mostly inflexible.

2.
3/3/55-Improved Gouge Shadow Dance
http://wotlk.openwow.com/talent#fhZhZebfbIGzdVzVcRt
Pros:

• Improved Gouge
• Can choose from a number of utility talents, namely Setup(Strong versus melee), Waylay, Cheat Death(Not recommended), and Ghostly Strike.

Cons:

• Trades damage for utility.
• Lower combo point generation.

3.
0/19/42-Improved Kick/Sprint Hemorrhage
http://wotlk.openwow.com/talent#fZhxudMbZe0fdIhzdVzV0k
Pros:

• Massive mobility
• Huge utility (best stunlocks of any PvP spec)
• Decent consistent damage.
• Riposte, Ghostly Strike and Setup are all deceptively strong versus melee.
• Super Energy efficient.

Cons:

• Unlike most Rogue specs, requires non-dagger weapons to be optimal.
• Comparatively low overall damage output.
• Lacks huge burst.

4.
41/5/15-Eviscerate Mutilate PvP
http://wotlk.openwow.com/talent#fhxcoeMsqroczZ0xZtbfb
Pros:

• Mutilate actually hurts at 70.
• Doesn't lose utility on focus targets like Envenom does.
• Has surprising spike damage, especially on Kidney Shotted targets.
• Can easily use Mind-Numbing poison if desired.

Cons:

• No Preparation (hurts a lot)
• 60 Energy Cheap Shot and 50 Energy Garrote makes openers harder.
• Low levels of utility

Note about Envenom: Don't do it. You don't gain enough damage for the loss of talents, and it doesn't work at all without the deep Subtlety talents like at 80.

5.
0/43/18-Setup Combat
http://wotlk.openwow.com/talent#fZGxhdMbxVMurMoZe0rdc
Pros:

• Deadly Throw interrupt (super underrated, very powerful.)
• Good energy efficiency.
• Respectable utility.
• Damage reduction while stunned/feared.
• Unfair Advantage and Setup have wonderful synergy.

Cons:

• No Killing Spree
• No Preparation
• Damage is average.

6.
0/51/10-Killing Spree Combat
http://wotlk.openwow.com/talent#fZGxhdMbxVMurMRte0b
Pros:

• Gigantic Burst
• Still has reasonable utility.
• High overall damage.

Cons:

• Largely a one-trick pony; need Killing Spree up to succeed.
• Slow/Long cooldown Stealth.
• Longer Blind, Vanish and Cloak of Shadows cooldowns.

If anyone wants further details on the specs or their rationales, don't hesitate to ask. I've tried and utilized all of these talent specs to success as a 70 Rogue Twink (including against other fully geared twinks and even a number of 80's) on other servers.

If you want to kill people fast go Shadow Dance.

what would you recommend to a first time rogue, and what rotation would you use?

Hemo specs don't perform better with non-dagger weapons since the abilities include higher (and well balanced) coefficients for daggers. Hemo and ghostly strike both. This was, I believe, a 3.3 change that isn't considered in most wotlk guides, as daggers sucked for non-BS/Ambush specs until this change. Is this why you say the build requires non-dagger weapons?


Question about :6) 0/51/10-Killing Spree Combat

- Could you not swap out Master of Deception to get faster stealth, just move the 3 points? It seems fair that it's an either or - both make it easier to get the opener. Do you feel MoD helps more than faster stealth? I'm wondering myself.


Fantastic guide and always good to have more rogue discussion, can be hard to find wotlk-related discussion.

Quote:

"Note about Envenom: Don't do it. You don't gain enough damage for the loss of talents, and it doesn't work at all without the deep Subtlety talents like at 80."


What makes you say that ? Which deep subtlety talents affect Envenom ?

Cookie-cutter Sub talents: http://armory.warmane.com/character/...ckrock/summary,
Glyphs are: Shadow Dance, Preparation and the 3rd one is a bit of a debate between glyph of Sprint and glyph of Vigor. Extensive playing with both makes glyph of Sprint the superior choice for me.